As I wrote in Part 1 of this article, no photos were taken in Myrtle Beach city proper. It shouldn’t make any difference but to some it does.

The weather all week was absolutely freakin’ fantastic, high 70s and low 80s with bright sunshine and, most of the time, a nice breeze off the water. You couldn’t have dialed it in any better.

I got to check out a lot of the great seafood restaurants in Murrells Inlet and let me tell you there wasn’t a dive to be found. The restaurants were gorgeous inside and out and the food was exceptional, not to mention every one had an outside area overlooking the Intercoastal Waterway. I had to stop and eat at Drunkin Jack’s as you might expect and had a great meal but was very disappointed that they did not make up any rally shirts this year. Oh well, they said next year. Speaking of Drunkin’ Jack’s, right out in back is Goat Island. That’s right, an island with just goats…..don’t know why.

Critiques of the rally seemed to be unanimous, not only with the increase in crowd size, but also the businesses and vendors reporting an overall good week. The Myrtle Beach Police Department has decreased rally-week operations dramatically from years past. No extra help was called in as it had been in peak years, and although all officers’ days off were initially canceled for the ten days of the rally, even that was scaled back as the week wore on. “We had no major incidents, no fatalities related to the bike rally inside the city, no major problems,” Capt. David Knipes said. “It went very well.”

No one can predict whether the Harley-Davidson Spring Cruisin’ the Coast Rally (as it is semi-officially called) will ever again draw the kind of crowds that it did in the past, but then again no one can predict if the price of gas will go up to $5 a gallon in the future and everyone will have to stay home or buy electric bikes. Personally I hope the later never happens and the former keeps growing just to piss off the gray hairs. Can I get a “Hell Yeah?”